There are many new faces on campus this semester; one of them is Dr. Penny Vlagopoulos. This Boston native, who works as a visiting professor for the English Literature department, spent the last twelve years calling New York her home. Despite the change, she has quickly taken to the TAMIU community. She may be best described as a “person of the world.” At first glance, the term may seem broad and obvious, but after just a few minutes with Dr. Vlagopoulos, the sensibility behind it becomes clear.
Finding her passion early on in her life, she’s been penning short stories from the time she was a child. Dr. Vlagopoulos now channels that creativity into the classroom. “I didn’t always know I was going to do it at this level but it’s always been my passion and that’s what I try to convey to my students. I just want them to get excited about it,” commented Dr. Vlagopoulos.
Her Survey of American Literature course serves as an example of a class that allows her to channel that ingenuity. The class holds a variety of students, making it a somewhat daunting task to keep all bodies interested; everyone from the avid reader to the homework procrastinator has to take that course. For her, finding time relevancy in classroom material is essential to getting students involved. “What I try to do is, even if we have a reading for that week that may be kind of dull, I try to extract the really interesting aspects of it. So this might not be too exciting to read, but what’s interesting about it socially or politically?” said Dr. Vlagopoulos.
Meanwhile, fully aware that there’s a heavy possibility students may not remember all the infinite details discussed in a classroom, she goes on to express, “When my students leave my classes I don’t know that they’re going to remember all the facts and dates about the authors from the 18th century but I want them to leave with a sense of how to think critically, how to apply the things they learned in their daily lives, how to question things. Question everything you read and see. There’s always an agenda.” stated Dr. Vlagopulos.
When asked what words of academic wisdom she had to pass on, Dr. Vlagopoulos revealed her aptitude for relating to her surroundings and offered more than a few words to take to heart. “This is the last time you’re going to be able to take random classes and topics that you know nothing about and would never get to study. It’s a great time to learn for the sake of learning. I think that it’s hard to convey that to students in an era of real goal-orientedness, and again, the stress of the economy and everyone wants stability. [But] this is really the time to do it, even if it may actually just enrich you as a person,” expressed Dr. Vlagopoulos.
After being here a little over a month, Vlagopulos has already had the opportunity to get to know TAMIU though its students and faculty. “I like that there’s a community here between students and faculty and administrators, a family feeling which is really nice. You don’t always get that at universities,” said Vlagopoulos. So regardless if you have her for class or not, should you see Dr. Vlagopoulos, whether it’d be at the local Starbucks or walking around the greens, don’t forget to extend a friendly TAMIU welcome, as she promises to engage you not as a student, but as a person of the world.